Proceedings of the First National Joint Conference of Librarians of Color - 243

second most important reason for selecting LIS schools among full-time students, while openness to working adults (i.e., flexibility of scheduling and availability of advising) was the second most important reason among part-time students. Many LIS schools already offer courses in evening hours or during the weekend. In addition, an increasing number of schools have online courses to accommodate these needs. It should be noted, however, that the flexibility in class times is not just relevant to ethnic minority groups. The LISSADA survey showed that “openness to the working adult” (e.g., flexible time schedule) was among the top three reasons/factors for White as well as other ethnic minority groups in their decision to choose an LIS school to attend (McCook & Moen, 1992). When suggestions on the recruitment and retention strategies made by different ethnic groups were analyzed, an interesting result was found. Among Native Americans, offering distance learning options in LIS programs was consistently ranked high for both recruitment (5th) and retention (6th). It seems that Native Americans tend to prefer to pursue studies without having to leave where they are, more than other ethnic groups. This seems to be consistent with the findings of the LISSADA survey (McCook & Moen, 1992): only 15% of Native American participants moved to a different state to attend LIS programs, which was the lowest rate among ethnic minority groups. Once effective recruitment and retention strategies are identified, it is important to figure out how to implement them. First of all, we would need to find out target groups. Study findings indicate that a number of participants decided to pursue LIS studies while working in the LIS field (26.9%). Para-professional librarians would be one of the most important target groups for the recruitment, which was also suggested in other studies (Buttlar & Caynon, 1992: Heim & Moen, 1989). Undergraduate (17.6%) and graduate programs (7.1%) and high schools (4.4%) will also be important targets to consider. Another important thing to find out is which groups can help LIS schools recruit and retain students of color. A majority of the respondents indicated that their previous library work experience and librarians influenced their decision to pursue studies in LIS. Clearly, librarians are the most important partner group for recruiting students of color. Emphasizing the importance of librarians in recruitment, a participant wrote, “I have taken the time to take some of my staff members for a visit to my alma mater. Advisors there were expecting the visit and also took the time to explain some of the programs. Out of the three I have taken in the past years, one is graduating; the other has taken three classes. The third one is finishing her bachelor degree and has a clear idea on how to proceed about enrolling for her MLS.” This underscores the importance of the librarian’s role as recruiter and mentor, which was echoed in other studies (Dewey, 1985). It also confirms the effectiveness of personal contact, as discussed by others (Wheeler & Hanson, 1995). Librarians can be an influential recruiter, mentor and role model for students. LIS schools need to work more closely with them to recruit and retain students of color. Simply producing more librarians of color cannot help LIS programs succeed if their graduates, regardless of their background, are not prepared to work in an increasingly diverse multicultural and multiethnic society. To better prepare their students, LIS schools/programs would need to work on several areas. First, they might need a curriculum reform in order to incorporate diversity issues and multiculturalism (Wheeler, 2005). It is desirable that this includes not only offering courses on diversity and multiculturalism, but also incorporating the diversity/multicultural issues in required courses (Freiband, 1992). As suggested by quite a few participants and others (Jeng, 1997; Freiband, 1992), helping students gain work experience in diverse communities through fieldwork or practicum would also be critical. As suggested for the better retention, helping all faculty and students become aware of the importance of diversity, and having diverse faculty and student body would also be of paramount importance. Some progress has been made in these areas, but LIS schools/programs will need to continue their efforts to improve the areas. CONCLUSION The study findings helped us reassess the efforts in recruiting and retaining students of color in LIS programs, and shed light on some key areas of focus and improvement for such efforts. Although there is a consensus in terms of the effectiveness of recruitment and retention strategies, some differences seem to exist among ethnic groups. More research is needed to better understand the preference and needs of different ethnic minority 243

Proceedings of the First National Joint Conference of Librarians of Color

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